D.  College Transition




Cheryl Sahlen and Jean Lehmann, Requesting Accommodations in Higher Education, Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 28-34 (2006).
For students with disabilities and those aging out of foster care, or both, the transition to college can be difficult.

Students with disabilities may need special education support in college.  Postsecondary institutions that receive any federal grant money (most of them) are obligated to provide accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act and Section 504. However, students must file paperwork to request accommodations, and document their disabilities. 



20 U.S.C. § 1414(c)(5)(B)(ii).
When a student graduates with a regular diploma, or ages out of IDEA, the school must provide the student with a summary of the child’s academic achievement and functional performance, which must include recommendations on how to assist the student to meet postsecondary goals.





If the last IEP is well written, and includes a current assessment, that should be adequate.  Students with disabilities should also request needed accommodations.

Colleges vary greatly in their level of support for students with disabilities. Ideally, a disability counselor should be available to support the student, to help solve problems, and to advocate for the student with professors and other personnel. The counselor initially should meet with the student at least once a week , and perhaps less as the student settles in. Other services such as tutoring should be available as needed. Accommodations for the student should be readily available. If the student and parents discuss the disability issue with different schools, they will be able to discern which schools support disability issues with enthusiasm and which ones pay lip service to the concept. One of the author’s sons attends a school with an enthusiastic, pro-active disability counselor, who meets with him as often as required, and has advocated for him. He chose not to attend a school that asked to know what his disabilities were before they accepted him!

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Special problems faced by foster youth may be that they are not prepared for the self-sufficiency and independent living required in college.   

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This is true for non-foster youth as well, of course, but they tend to have better support systems from parents. Institutionalized foster youth are especially vulnerable because the transition of leaving the group home on the eighteenth birthday can be extremely abrupt.

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Programs focusing on success for foster youth in college are growing but not widely available.  



Considerations for foster youth transitioning to college include:
  • support for college planning and filling out paperwork, which can be overwhelming;
  • where they will live, because they need year-round housing;
  • help applying for financial aid, and access to funds available for foster youth (such as through Chafee Education Training Vouchers);
  • support system in college;
  • medical coverage through Medicaid or through the school;
  • transportation issues (or a college that does not require private transportation);  and
  • technology access (such as a laptop through Chafee ETV).
Needs of students with disabilities and foster youth are similar in many ways, and must be addressed for the students to succeed in higher education.